The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-14
The Children Indoors.

Inc wo0dDox VIII prove goOu play
thing If il is full of sticks, split o.
round, of differet kinds of wood. lie
the little folks take out the sticks, on,
by one, and bring them to you t.
name. Oilnut, oak, maple, birch
beach, elm, hemlock, and ash woot
may be in that pile in the box. ane
even the lit le six-year-old can easily b,
taught to detect and correctly name
some of the varieties The smooth
notified bark of the beach, the ragged
shreds of the yellow and gray birch,
and the color and crystal beads of pitch
gum of the pine and hemlock when in
round sticks. Sections Of limbs are
sure guides of their kind, and easy tt
name, but not so always when the
wood is in split sticks, without tell
tale half-nch of bark surface.
Perhaps you cannot tell a chip o.
maple wood from elm or beach. If so,
you can study the contents of the wood.
box and chip basket with your chill
dren. Tell them elm wood and sound
rock maple and oak wood, whether in
split or round sticks, seldom snap when
burning, and are comparatively safe
for night fires in open, deep tireplaces.
Tell them if they want to burn big
holes id mammals carpets and rugs to
lay butternut and poplar and soft pine,
cedar or hemlock on the open fire and
then let the sticks pop live Goals right
and left as well as straight ahead from
the CRATE.
Tell them an old nurse, many years
ago. burned house and seven poor
people in 1t one night becau she could
not tell one kind of wood from anoth-
er. She rolled great backlog of
butternut wood on to the andirons of
the big fireplace ono evening for a
night fire to keep warm a little new
baby and its mother. believing the log
was of elm wood. and when they were
all asleep live coal snapped out and
burned and smoldered away in the
floor till it blazed into fierce tapping
flames that roared and rushed so terri
bly, swift that, all the people up stairs
were burned in their beds.
once saw woman camp down one
night, on thick cotton comfortable
spread before an open CRATE. while
watching with sick child. She knew
so little about wood she thought one
kind was as safe as another, and did
not think the poplar sticks she had just
laid on the fire would snap and throw
Goals, but they did, and II the child had
not reused with the dense smudge of
burning cotton, no doubt the smolder-
ing puff would soon have blazed and
done terrible mischief.
know little boy who has box.
full of sections of different woods. He
is always on the lookout for new
specimen and has bit of every kind
of tree or shrub he can find in his
fathers's fields and woods. When Wis.,
itors come, he delights in showing
them his collection of woods, and in
having them puzzle over the pretty
cubes and cylinders OF wood, and If
they mistake akind he is quick to know
it,
This indoor study Of chips and wood
brought in to replenish winter fires will
amuse the children when time hangs
heavy, and by close notice of bark and
fiber and grain and smell and color and
slivering of wood they will soon learn
to detect the common kinds from each
other and. perhaps, wake to such an
interest in the study, that when summer
time comes again, they will commence
a collection of native woods, and the
green growing trees and shrubs will
bear to them new, keen interest. =
CiariSSa Potter, m Good Housekcep-
ing.